Fall is coming fast here in Alaska. I am starting to see yellow leaves on some of the willow bushes, and on occasional one or two on some of the birch trees. I am not ready, but ready or not, it’s coming in a hurry.

But, we haven’t just been twiddling our thumbs all summer, and we are wrapping some things up in the next week or so. I thought I’d share some photos, and if you’d like to see a video walkthrough of our current project, let me know! Our building season is not over yet, but this project almost is.

The deck is finished, and I love decks. This is a really nice size deck, and it turned out great. I told my husband I needed a deck this big. He was not real interested in my thoughts on that subject! We have a nice deck, it just isn’t finished yet.

The tongue and groove has been finished for a couple of weeks. We spent the last week getting doors installed, trim around the doors, windows and base trim around the floor, as well as along any edge where 2 different planes of T&G meet. We also installed the bathroom cabinets and sinks so we could do a custom wood backsplash and finish the trim around them.

The kitchen cabinets arrived a few days ago as well, and they are now finished being installed. The counter top company came out and measured for the countertops, and wow, there’s a wait on them, up to 3 weeks.

We have the electricians scheduled to come back in this week, and we had scheduled the plumbers to come back later this week but without the kitchen counter being installed, they won’t be able to finish anyway. They’ll hold off coming back until that’s been installed.

We have stairs going up to the deck, but no handrails yet as the owner has been out of state and we wanted his input on the look and sturdiness of the many possibilities. That should be finished by the end of this week.

In the garden, things are starting to die back. My onions are ready to pick although I haven’t had time to finish that job yet. The beet tops look great, but I haven’t dared pull one up to see. I haven’t had much success in years past, finishing the season with all tops and no beets. But this year I’m hopeful! I talked about my cabbage last week but forgot to add a picture. I have a couple smaller ones left in the garden, hopefully soon they’ll be ready.

We’ve been picking potatoes in the part of the patch that didn’t do so well. There are still potatoes there, but there aren’t as many as I’m hoping there’ll be in the good patch. But regardless, they taste great. I started picking them a couple of weeks ago, and there is still a noticeable size difference after a few more weeks of growth.

My tomatoes are producing by the bowls. I picked 50 yesterday, and then picked another 40 or so today. About 2/3 are cherry type tomatoes. I have been putting the Roma’s into the freezer so I could make salsa and enchilada sauce with them later when I have time. The rest are getting eaten. I’m not a big raw tomato fan, except in salsa, but my husband is, and he has been loving the fresh tomatoes. The ones at the grocery store taste like cardboard he says.

I planted out the 2 greenhouse beds that I cleared out, the greens might just be poking their heads out, the carrots I’m sure will be another week or better. I’m very curious to see how they do this late in the season. The greens will be fine, but will the carrots get big enough to make it worth my time as a late season crop? I’ll keep you posted.

This past Friday I was able to attend the Farmer’s Market as a vendor again. In years past I make it every week, but this was only the third time this year. It was fun to visit with all the locals that I know, as well as all the travelers from around the United States. I loved sitting and listening to all the people, selling a bit of art, and having a bit of time to paint.

Even though this summer did not quite look like I’d hoped it would, I have enjoyed almost every minute of it. We have been busy constantly, the house inside has been thoroughly neglected, the gardens outside haven’t had much more attention, but have grown despite my lack of care. I’m not really ready for summer to end, but I do look forward to the slow down of fall, even if it’s just a little bit.

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